Concrete Referendum Proposals at the University of Sheffield Challenge Israel's Concrete Indifference to the Fate of Palestinian Citizens

By Rashida Islam

University of Sheffield Palestine Society

The University of Sheffield's Palestine Society was able to secure over 1000 signatures to send the pro-Palestinian policy (see below) to referendum.

Israel’s 2008-9, Massacre of  Gaza, by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed over 1400 Palestinians – 400 children. Thousands of homes, hospitals, schools and universities were also destroyed.

Since 2007, Israel has imposed an illegal blockade on Gaza barring people, goods and aid from entering or leaving. Damage caused by Israel’s attack cannot be repaired. Food and medicines are scarce. Students lack books, desks and paper.

Education will play a vital role in rebuilding a safer, peaceful Palestine.

This Union resolves to:
•actively campaign to end the siege on Gaza
•take practical steps supporting Palestinians’ right to education by fostering links with the Islamic University of Gaza ”

Our aim in the coming week is to lay out a concrete set of demands that we hope to see realised:
1) Every year send a delegation of students/members of staff to occuppied territories
2) Training for the sabbatical officers before the beginning of each academic year to educate them on the ongoing crisis in Palestine
3) UN Palestine Solidarity Day - Ensure the union takes active steps in publicising this event so that the Palestine Society can educate students regarding occuppied Palestine

The overall aim of the Palestine Society is to educate the students at the University of Sheffield on Palestine and simultaneously campaign against the injustices suffered by all Palestinians in particular the pupils/students who are denied access to their education. 

Peaceful Protest Causes Anger and Condemnation By LSE Israel Society (as usual...)

Milad Ranei

Tuesday 25th January, the London School of Economic's weekly newspaper - The Beaver, published a letter written to the Editor, by the LSE Students' Union Israel Society:

Sir – We are writing further to hearing about the Beaver’s support for the Palestine Society’s campaign to boycott water from Eden Springs UK.

We understand fully the importance and role of a strong pro-Palestinian voice on campus. Of course, it is legitimate to disagree with the policies of the Israeli government.

However, we object to the method of protest. On Thursday outside Clement House members of the Palestine Society were standing dressed in army outfits holding oversized guns. They had placed around them bottles of Eden water with red liquid inside.  Perhaps this was supposed to represent Palestinian blood?  This “stunt” was offensive and childish. Furthermore, such crude campaigning does nothing to further good campus relations and dialogue between the Israel Society and the Palestine Society.  It is divisive and creates a hostile atmosphere. Please could the Beaver explain its support for such a method of campaigning, which is clearly highly offensive and divisive?

It is interesting to note that the water in question here originates from West Hyde, Hertfordshire, not the Golan Heights. In addition, since the Palestine Society’s aim is to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, the Golan Heights does not even fall within this remit. The only explanation the Israel Society can draw from this is that the Palestine Society are more anti-Israel than they are pro-Palestine.

The response from the Beaver Editorial Board was as follows: 

Israel Society - Thank you for your letter regarding the stance expressed in our editorial ("This is the only way we can participate" , 18th January 2011). 

We should preface our justification of support by saying that at the time of going to press last week, the Palestine Society had yet to protest in the manner that they did outside St.Clements. That said, we continue to support their actions 

Because the cause they are campaigning against concerns an allegedly illegal occupation which has displaced a large number of civilians, we believe the comparatively tame nature of their protest is fully justified. Whether those harmed by Israel's actions are Syrian or Palestinian, the society is right to highlight the methods that Israel deems acceptable. 

As for the revelation that the water originates from Hertfordshire, we are confident this is immaterial to the discussion. We remain concerned witht he parent company's actions, viz, profiteering from an unjust state of affairs. 

Please be assured this does not correspond with any uneasiness about the actions of the Israel Society, which we appreciate is committed to constructive dialogue. 

Nonetheless, it is laughable that the LSE Israel Society oppose peaceful protest, describing it as "childish and offensive." Then again when protesting for basic rights, Justice and Freedom for Palestinians, who are murdered on a daily basis, it is difficult to please everyone, even the 'mouthpieces' of the oppressors.

It would be interesting to know whether the Israeli Society finds the illegal colonial settlements built in the West Bank offensive, or if they find the present siege on Gaza offensive, or if they find Avigdor Lieberman's statements offensive, and if they do, what are they doing to protest this? Nothing.

 Perhaps time would be better spent pursuing more noble causes, instead of being the first to criticise the actions of the LSE Palestine Society. 

LSE Palestine Society Stunt: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - Eden Springs

By Nadia Marques de Carvalho
(LSE Palestine Society)

On Thursday 20th January the London School of Economics Palestine Society staged a surprise stunt at midday on Houghton Street, to raise awareness of a recent campaign it has launched to get Eden Springs off its campus. 

LSE Palestine Society Members in the Stunt

The stunt involved having bottles of Eden water symbolically wrapped in barbed wire, surrounded by two Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers on either side. Note some of the bottled water stained symbolically with red tint, to portray the blood of Palestinians. 

The Stunt in the Union General Meeting 

The stunt was a successful and dramatic way to mobilise the student body into standing in solidarity with the core concepts of Justice, Equality and Freedom, which the BDS movement endeavours to achieve in Palestine - well, should I say, The Occupied Territories. 

Signatures filled the petition papers that propose that the university not purchase water coolers and bottled water from Eden Springs UK, which is part of the Israeli company Mey Eden, which appropriates and sells water from sources in Syrian land that has been controversially occupied since 1967.

LSE Palestine Society Committee Members

This campaign to get Eden Springs off campus is only the beginning. 

The LSE Palestine Society are in the process of contacting other British Palestine Societies to follow in suit.

 In solidarity we can end the illegal, Israeli Apartheid regime. 

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Sticker on the London Underground

LSE Palestine Society Host Ben White

By Peter Stockwell

On Tuesday 18th January, the London School of Economics Palestine Society invited the author Ben White to come and give a talk titled, "Understanding Israel's policies of Apartheid and Exclusion." 

Ben White at the LSE

The talk was a great success attended by both outside and LSE students. 

Ben White is a freelance journalist and writer, specialising in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. His first book, ‘Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide’, was published in 2009, receiving praise from the likes of Desmond Tutu and Nur Masalha. Ilan Pappe called White a “strong and clear voice”, while Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, described the book as “essential reading”.

Ben White divided his talk into three fundamental parts which he believes has helped in creating and maintaining the Israeli Apartheid Regime: Land & Privilege, Demolitions and a De Facto One State. 

Under the first point of "Land & Privilege" Ben White explored the Israeli strategy of "judaising' the Negev/Galilee, whereby 20% of the population are Palestinians, mainly because there are "too many of the wrong people in a particular area." The strategy of ensuring a "Zionist majority" was one initiated by the Jewish Agency in 2002 and endorsed by the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister who claimed in 2009 that the "focus of today is to judaize the Negev and the Gailiee." 

Ben White also explored the concept of "settlements" whereby there are over 120 official colonies, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, fragmenting and colonising what would be considered in the future the Palestinian State. In these settlements the regime of separation and inequality is ensured: a prime example illustrated by Mr. White was that Israelis in the settlements are subject to Civil Law, compared to Palestinians who are subject to Military Law. This has been described by Human Rights Watch as "Systematic Discrimination", thus creating a two-tier system. 

Mr. White explored the question of the East Jerusalem where by 87% of land is unavailable for Palestinian construction, which the EU has described as "systematically undermining the Palestinians." Reference was also made to the Gaza Buffer Zone whereby 23 children were shot in the period between March - December 2010 alone. 

Demolitions are one way of ensuring apartheid. An example of Al-Arqaib was given, a village that has been demolished 9 times in the space of one year. In the West Bank, Israel has torn down 396 Palestinian structures in 2010 alone: leaving 561 homeless. The funny thing is, Palestinians must pay for the demolition of their own property. 

"Demolition of Palestinian homes is linked with Israeli Policy to control and colonise areas of the West Bank" 

Amnesty International  

Mr. White also touched on the semantics of the lexicon employed by Israel, i.e. Occupation. Surely, this suggests something short-term? Nonetheless, this supposed "occupation" started in 1967. Nothing temporary about this Israel. Mr. White argued that Israel has absorbed the West Bank into the very fabric of the Israeli Society, and thus the de facto creation of a "one-state". 

The talk ended with an emphasis on the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Campaign, because, in the words of Yonathan Shapira (in his letter "Courage to Refuse");

 "It is no longer enough to try and change Israel from within. Israel has to be pressured in the same way apartheid South Africa was forced to change." 

because, "the oppressor doesn't give up power voluntarily." 

LSE Palestine Society Campaign to Drown Eden Springs

Lukas Slothuus

Members of the Students’ Union Palestine Society are currently protesting the School’s use of water from a company which operates sources and plants in the Golan Heights.

Students are lobbying the School not to purchase water coolers and bottled water from Eden Springs UK, which is part of the Israeli company Mey Eden, which appropriates and sells water from sources in Syrian land that has been controversially occupied since 1967.

The extension of Israeli law and administration throughout the territory has been condemned by the United Nations Security Council, and widely denounced.

The Palestine Society ran a stall on Houghton Street last Thursday and Friday, from which they asked students to sign a petition supporting their cause. They also sold cakes and traditional Palestinian foods to fund a new initiative with the Palestinian Women’s Humanitarian Organisation. The LSE has no central contract or purchasing agreement with Eden Springs UK, but the company is on a list of suppliers offered to individual departments by the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), with which the School has a framework agreement.

LSE Palestine Society's Stall

A spokesperson for the School said that departments could choose between at least six water suppliers; empty water canisters are regularly seen outside offices in the Department of International History, among others.

The School also clarified that water ordered from Eden Springs UK originates from West Hyde, Hertfordshire, and not from the Golan Heights.

Similar campaigns have been organised by Palestinian rights activists at other British universities. In February 2009, a sit-in protest by forty students convinced the University of Strathclyde to cancel its contract with Eden Springs UK. The protest, which was led by members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, presented a list of demands, including the severing of investments with BAE Systems, an arms manufacturer, and the creation of a scholarship scheme for Palestinian students wishing to study at the university.

Signing the petition to get Eden Springs off campus

Eleven students at UCL submitted a motion in February 2010 petitioning their students’ union to “put pressure on UCL to cancel its contract with Eden Springs UK Ltd as soon as is legally possible”.

The UCL motion, which passed at the union’s Annual General Meeting in the same month, also mandated the education and ethics and environment Officers to write to the university’s Provost on the issue. UCL’s Procurement Services website, which was last updated in October 2010, still lists Eden Springs as a contracted supplier of water coolers, though two other suppliers are also specified.

A statement from the LSE confirmed that the framework agreement with LUPC expires on 30th June, and that it would be a matter for LUPC as to whether Eden Springs retains its place on a new agreed list of suppliers.

Among the sources operated by Mey Eden is the Salukia spring in the Golan Heights. The company also owns a bottling plant in Katzrin, an Israeli settlement in the region.

20,000 Israeli settlers inhabit the Golan Heights alongside an equal number of Syrians; the unilateral annexation of the region in 1981 is not internationally recognised.

Palestine Society President Zachariah Sammour told the Beaver: “The natural resources of a State should be of benefit to the people of that State alone; either through national ownership or through State taxation of profits accrued through its economic use”.

Sammour added, “Israel is therefore denying the people of that region the benefits of their own land and resources and illegally subverting it for themselves.

“We believe that a progressive institution like the LSE should not be conducting business with a company facilitating a state of affairs that is both illegal and which poses a massive threat to world peace, namely the continued, illegal Israeli Occupation”, he said.

The School also said it was their intention in the longer term to “eradicate all bottled water supplies on campus in favour of water fountains using filtered tap water, as this is a more sustainable option."